Apprehended by God

1apprehendHis mission was simple. He would attend the bizarre Christian meetings and gather evidence he could use against them in the classes he taught. The night would not go as planned.

The time was the early 1900’s, the city was Los Angeles. Although traffic was already becoming a problem, there were very few roads. Motion pictures were still largely a dream although Nickelodeons had begun to pop up, and Thomas Edison had produced a feature film.

In an old livery stable, turned apartment building, turned church, a growing number of people were meeting under the leadership of William Seymour. Seymour was a simple man, he was the son of former slaves whose father had been killed fighting for the Union Army in the Civil war. The father’s death left the family absolutely devastated. Seymour was completely blind in one eye following an illness.

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The Power of Humility

humilityWhen Revivalist Glenn Cook heard the stories about the bazaar meetings across town, he was furious. How dare someone come into his town and begin meetings that quickly became far more popular than his own. “They must be in heretical!”

The meetings were odd to say the least. The leader – an African American son of former slaves with one blind eye – had traveled from Texas to Los Angeles. Almost as soon as he arrived, he was summarily fired by the church who hired him. He started meeting in a house, but destroyed the porch. He finally rented a converted stable with a dirt floor to hold meetings.

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